Conisbrough former coucnillor: “Decriminalising hard drugs is no answer”

Ex-Councillor Tony Sellars, of Denaby.

Published:08:15Saturday 12 October 2013

A Conisbrough community volunteer has slammed a police chief’s recommendation to decriminalise hard drugs.

Tony Sellars, who runs the Conisbrough and Denaby Drug Awareness Group said the idea Chief Constable Mike Barton of Durham Police would create more and more addicts.

Chief Con Barton, intelligence lead for the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) - said he believed decriminalisation of Class A drugs would take away the income of dealers, destroy their power, and a “controlled environment” would be a more successful way of tackling the issue.

But Mr Sellars said: “If we legalised drugs it would not be long before they were there available ‘in your face’. It is bad enough for addicts to come off their habit when they are illegal. Recovering addicts have all said to me if drugs were legalised they would not have been able to give up.”